Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Slightly Mixed Feelings



Sigh. You know, I've heard people say, "If you can only reach one, it's worth it."


Unfortunately, that's just not true. I've had several people tell me that it's just the particular school I'm in that's the problem, and to not let it discourage me. Too late. It's just not worth dealing with the 10 apathetic and the 3 outright demonic students I have for every decent student. I'm sorry for the few good students I have, and I really feel for the (mostly) great students that show up for the book club, but I don't think I'll ever teach again below the college level.

5 comments:

Don said...

Are you done with that school, or done with teaching? It's too early to give up. Your administration there was very odd, so your friends might have a point. I wouldn't want to work for people who would call a teacher out of a class where there's already been a serious discipline problem, leaving the class unattended.
As a matter of fact, I think you could pull in ten average people off the street who had never taught in a classroom, and zero of ten would pull a stunt like that. It makes no sense at all.

J.R.Shirley said...

I think I'm done teaching below college-level classes.

Tam said...

When I was toying with the teaching idea, a friend said to me "At least you know that college students paid to be there..."

Laughingdog said...

"At least you know that college students paid to be there..."Actually, for most of them, that's not true. Since Mommy and Daddy are paying for most of them, they have only slightly more vested into college than they did in high school.

J.R.Shirley said...

In Georgia, students can get at least most of their tuition costs covered just by having kept a B or higher average.

Most of my students will not fall into this category.

John


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